


i am very nearly imaginary (without you)

by hawkguy (orphan_account)



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-04
Updated: 2014-02-04
Packaged: 2018-01-11 04:43:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1168835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/hawkguy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You love him because he's had just as many names as you have.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i am very nearly imaginary (without you)

You love him because he's had just as many names as you have.

Natasha (Natalia, Alex, Jane, Emily, Sophia) is nothing but a construct, a fiery phoenix that rose out of the ashes, a blood red angel who rose out of destruction to create more. Natasha is what people make her, what people tell her to be, and it is never perfect to be Natasha, but it is bearable.

It is not very pleasant to be Clint.

Clint (Frank, Bart, John, Harold, James) is another construct, but one closer to your heart than any other. He is just as fake as you are, just as full of layers and layers of warnings and deception. The bow is the only thing life has left him and he clings to it like a life raft, just as you could not possibly live without your guns.

In private, he calls you Natalia in the sweetest voice he can manage when he's ripped up by battle, how human he is painfully obvious as you pull thread through the skin of his back and arms. You are nothing like him, easily healed and even more easily repaired, and the fact that you are both just terrible facades, two painstakingly constructed identities too closely tied together to let go, is too obvious.

"Do you know what it's like to be unmade?"

"You know I do."

"Natalia." His voice shakes and you have never heard him scared, not even once all of these years. "Natalia."

Your name sounds like a prayer and you love it. You kiss him until he's remade, until his rabbit heart settles in his chest, and place your hand over it to feel it beat, vibrate the skin under your hand. You kiss him until he can smile with his eyes again, sucking the bad out of him and spitting it out, and when he smiles at you, you smile back.

You may both be lies, but you are tied too closely together to let go. And that is the truth.


End file.
